England are playing with a new surge of self-confidence, says manager Fabio Capello.

"We spoke about mistakes and errors," revealed Capello. "We spoke about the systems. We spoke to remove fear and find confidence.

"English players were excellent with their clubs but they were not the same when they were with their national team. We have worked a lot on that.

"But I never spoke about the past. I have never done that in my life.

"I did not discuss what went wrong. I asked them to forget about the past and just to think about the future."

Instead, Capello spoke with FA staff at Soho Square and others who had been around the players in order to draw his own conclusions.

The informal chats all came back to the same issue, confidence being drained away by a naked fear of failure.

"I saw all the games on DVD," he added. "I studied them and started to understand why some results happened.

"When they had to get a result in the last game at home against Croatia, there was no confidence at all. The team played with fear."

In Capello's mind, the recent upturn in results has not erased what went before. He recognised agitation in the stands during difficult moments in that home game with the Swiss and, more recently, in meetings with the Czech Republic and Kazakhstan.

It is why, while Germany, probably Spain and Slovenia are next in line for England, his mind is already starting to focus on that next qualifier against Ukraine on April 1.

"I am very interested to see what happens," he said.

"That will be a big test. I want to see whether the fear is still there. I hope it has gone. We have got a lot of points away. We need to get them at home as well."